Having listened to hours of African Christmas music, I can confidently say that these albums and songs will put your heart in a worshipful mood and get your feet tapping and your body grooving. While globally, African music may be best known for the highlife and Afrobeat genres, artists across the continent incorporate jazz, a cappella, R&B, rap, dance and hip-hop into their music.
As a British Ghanaian now living in the United States who has sung in choirs and led worship, I count these among my favorite African Christmas gospel songs, mostly from the English-speaking world, that represent these wide-ranging musical styles and feature collaborations with other worlds – class artists.
If we missed any of your favorites, please email us at ctafrica@christianitytoday.com!
eatlorocka is a Nigerian gospel artist and producer who has been in the music and production industry for over 27 years and is an award winning singer and producer. He has collaborated with other well-known Nigerian artists such as Helen Yawson and Sammie Okposo.
Florocka’s album 2021, Another Christmas According to Florockais a dance album (think J Moss-type songs, especially ‘Keresimesi’) that includes pop and hip-hop tracks along with songs like ‘God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen’, which somehow combines Middle Eastern music with rock and rap bridge.
Jehovah Shalom Acapella is a six piece band from Uganda who released their five track EP Joy to the world in 2020. The title track, an adaptation of the Isaac Watts classic, begins in English before switching to Luganda, and the song “Enkya Ennungi Esembedde” (“I’m Telling the World about His Love”) is entirely in the language Bantu.
Last year, the Seventh-day Adventist group released another Christmas EP, The Manger and the Cross, which includes versions of standard Christmas carols such as “Angels We Have Heard on High” and “Hark the Herald Angels Singing”. The EP’s final song is the title track, which moves the listener’s attention from the birth to the crucifixion: “Born to save a wretch like me / Amazing love, how could it be / That you, Lord, should die for me.”
JOnathan Butler, singer, songwriter and Grammy nominee who grew up in apartheid South Africa, was the first black South African to have his music featured on white radio and national television in the apartheid country. Nelson Mandela after being credited Butler’s music inspired him during his imprisonment.
In Christmas Togetherreleased in 2019, Butler features several celebratory classic collaborations with world-class American artists such as R&B singer Sheléa and saxophonists Dave Koz, Kirk Whalum and Gerald Albright, the latter performing an elegant cover of “Deck the Halls.”
Christmas Together is Butler’s second Christmas album, which follows Merry Christmas to you (2013). Butler is currently on tour and will appear with Koz and others over the Christmas period in the United States this month.
Joyous Celebration is a South African choir founded in 1994, just as apartheid was ending. On Merry Christmas (Live) released in 2018, former singers Ntokozo Mbambo, Nqubeko Mbatha and Mahalia Buchanan return to the band to release a record that offers an African sound with an R&B twist.
The album opens with the choir singing ‘Jesus, Lover of My Soul’ over JS Bach’s ‘Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring’, an unexpected but celebratory blend of the contemporary and the traditional. The album includes favorites such as “Your Grace”, “Give You All the Glory” and “Who Am I”, as well as songs in Zulu, one of South Africa’s main languages, such as “Uyangihola” (“He Leads Me “), “Bhekani Yehova” (“Give Glory to the Lord”) and “Hallelujah Nkateko (Lihle Version)” (“Blessing Hallelujah”).
KODA is a Ghanaian artist famous for his highlife music, which combines jazz, rock, hip-hop and afrobeat sounds. In KODA’s song ‘Christmas in Tadi’, he creates a mix of ‘Silent Night’ and ‘O Holy Night’ with guitars, pianos and traditional Ghanaian drums. (“Tadi” is a term of endearment for Takoradi, a town in Ghana, where KODA is from.)
KODA released his first album in 2017 which tackled the challenges of the Ghanaian church and pastors too focused on making money on tracks like “Nsem Pii” (“Many Troubles”), making him famous with many Ghanaian Christians. While KODA is known for up-tempo highlife dance songs like “Nsem Pii”, “Christmas in Tadi” is a reflective mid-tempo ballad composed of familiar Christmas tunes.
Niiella is a UK-based Ghanaian singer, songwriter and vocal coach who appeared on season 10 of BET’s Best Sunday. Following her success on the show, Niiella continued to release music and collaborated with African and Western Christian artists such as Joe Mettle and The Spirituals.
Last month, Niiella released her single, ‘Christmas Night’, a melodic, soulful choral song where she reminds us;
A child was born
That all man may be saved
And he gave, he gave eternal life
A child was born to bring salvation to the earth It was Christmas night.
NTokozo Mbambo, who started her career with the vocal group Joyous Celebration, has found success as a solo artist, songwriter and dynamic performer. The live Christmas album of 2020 The first Christmas includes a performance of “Hark the Herald Angels Sing” in which he sings in English and Zulu, and later sings in English and Twi in “Yinaye” (“Praise God”).
The South African singer’s record also includes covers of classic Christmas songs such as ‘O Holy Night’, ‘O Come Let Us Adore Him’ and ‘O Come, O Come, Emmanuel’ and CeCe Winans’ hit ‘Jesus, You’re Beautiful. “
mmerged by the Egyptian Christian music group Praise Team Egypt, Praise Team Youth is a non-denominational choir featuring singers and band members from Orthodox, Catholic and Evangelical backgrounds. The group has recorded 40 albums and sings in Arabic and English on their albums.
The group started after its founder, Boules Boushra, visited many European countries and realized that most songs in Egypt were more about petition and lamentation and less about praise and worship. After translating some of the songs into Arabic, he began writing his own music and organizing a group to perform this project with the aim of encouraging “Christians throughout the Arab world to glorify God as He wills them.” In their song, ‘In the Christmas Night’, they sing in Arabic:
Christmas Eve,
The bright star of the sky,
Shine the light of God,
Then, the Lord will be exalted.
Pirinx Emmanuel is a Nigerian gospel singer-songwriter, producer and recording artist and performer who has previously collaborated with well-known Nigerian artists such as Limoblaze and Moses Bliss.
On his 2022 Christmas single “Afrobeat Christmas,” he mixes “Hark the Herald” with “Little Drummer Boy” into a result that could play instantly on any Top 40 station. You might end up dancing!
smallinach is one of the best known Nigerian Christian singers, best known for her worldwide hit ‘Way Maker’. American artists such as Leeland, Michael W. Smith and Bethel Music and Dante Bowe have released their versions of the widely used worship song. Sinach has been leading worship and recording music for over 25 years. “Way Maker” won Song of the Year at both the GMA Dove Awards and the BMI Christian Awards, and in 2016 Sinach became the first winner of the LIMA Songwriter of the Decade Award.
Sinach’s 2013 R&B Christmas album, Sinach at Christmasfeatures classic Christmas songs along with originals, including the hit song, “I Know Who I Am.”
TThe Spirituals are an African British gospel choir whose 2020 version of “Wade in the Water” it went viral and won them a performance at St Paul’s Cathedral. The group, which redefines and adapts traditional Black spirituals, has created a four-track Christmas EP, Christmas project, which combines contemporary gospel with favorite Christmas carols and hymns. The album features Niiella, who is one of the choir directors, as well as Christian R&B and neo-soul singer Kaye-Marie.
The group’s rendition of “O Holy Night (Beautiful Savior)” begins with an energetic instrumental interlude to the tune of “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel,” which builds into a choral swell, leading into a soulful, sparsely accompanied solo performance of the first verse. A lively “Hark the Herald (Sing Out Loud)” brings the traditional Christmas carol to life with claps, syncopations, choral harmonies, choruses and vocal interludes. It’s a modern, joyful composition of a favorite that truly captures the spirit of a choir of angels singing for joy.
WThe atoto Children’s Choir from Uganda started in 1994 through the Watoto Church, a Kampala community formed in the 1980s when the civil war broke out. According to its website, the church launched to bring healing to the nation and help rebuild the country.
The choir album 2021, What Child Is This (Emirembe), features a blend of Afrobeat and R&B sensibilities along with signature chorus claps and joyous call-and-response screams. The lullaby ‘We Three Kings’ plays with the structure and melody of the traditional carol, interspersing solo verses with choral interjections. Listeners will be impressed by the musicianship and skills of the young singers, who have performed around the world for huge audiences and heads of state.